He spoke at Senate hearing in which military leaders seemed hostile to strong measures

Nearly 20,000 military personnel are raped or sexually assaulted each year, a crisis discussed on Tuesday at a Senate Armed Services hearing.

Unfortunately the hearing featured no testimony from victims at all. Witnesses opposed military reform 18-2, BuzzFeedreports.

Military witnesses insisted that the military could deal with sexual assaults within their own ranks, and didn't need civilian help. Unnervingly, some military witnesses made some misleading statements in their arguments against reform. For instance, Marine Col. Tracy King said that "[Rape] reporting in the civilian community is even worse" than in the military, which is simply not true.

In other countries where sexual assault reporting was taken out of the military chain of command, reporting increased by 80%, according to Senator Kirsten Gillibrand.

AZ Senator John McCain had strong words for the current situation. "Just last night, a woman came to me and said her daughter wanted to join the military and could I give my unqualified support for her doing so. I could not," said McCain.

"We have to ask ourselves: if left uncorrected, what impact will this problem have on recruitment and retention of qualified men and women?" McCain asked. "I cannot overstate my disgust and disappointment over continued reports of sexual misconduct in our military."

Under questioning from McCain, Army Gen. Martin Dempsey admitted that people with histories of sexual assault are sometimes allowed to enlist and serve. Other senators panned the military's record-keeping, which doesn't distinguish between sexual harassment and rape.

good idea. except unlike your imaginary tales of socialism and communism, rape has been a problem since the inception of human lust. sex is a basic instinct, it is the reason all organisms on this planet exists (to pass its genes), and sex is the most powerful instinct (debatable) which leads to problems...which have occured for tens of thousands of years. there is even rape in the animal kingdom.

I would suggest the numbers are actually higher than reported, that is generally the case. And having the Military deal with the problem in the Military is not the way to handle this large a problem. Local police cannot investigate a crime on Federal Lands, only federal law enforcement can. That would overload the FBI and really open up a can of worms for the Military. We have problems when this is so prevalent and out of control, says little for the investigators in the Military.

@Arumizy Wow, just wow. And people wonder why females are mistreated in the military. They have co-workers who describe them as the "problem" to their own rapes....and they viewed as SO unequal that working with them is such an "unfortunate experience". Thanks for personally shedding light on how women in the services are hardly viewed as human beings by those that they work with.

@JustinFL Its always fun when words are added to a statement to take them out of context. I never blamed women for their own rapes, nice try what i did say is keep women out and you solve the problem at its very base. Didn't blame women for being raped, that responsibility falls directly on those who perform it. And every woman i have ever served with has been a sub-par marine, who couldnt perform their duties adequately or to any semblance of satisfaction. But nice try though, maybe tune into MSNBC to get your new information for later, i am rather sure

@Arumizy But getting rid of all women to prevent rapes? Really? That's as stupid as proposing getting rid of all men in order to prevent rapes....which when you think about it, it's actually a remotely better proposition since rape IS a crime as opposed to being a rape victim which isn't a crime (although many victims in the military are treated as such).

Oh and boo-hoo that you didn't meet a female in the Marines that didn't meet YOUR "standards." I've met quite a few females while I was in the Army who were great at their jobs. A lot of female soldiers in recent years have been recognized for their achievements. For example, Leigh Ann Hester and Monica Lin Brown are recipients of the Silver Star. My own family also has female military achievements; my Aunt was the 1st female B-52 mechanic allowed in the Air Force in the 1970s and she received an award for saving a B-52 during a typhoon while she was stationed in Okinawa.

So I really don't understand where the hell you get this grand idea that just because you had run-ins with bad apples...that means an entire group of service members has to go because they all must be bad. And yeah, I do stand by my belief that your sentiments towards women in the military highlights perfectly the underlying issues concerning how they are treated. When the broad spectrum of belief within the military towards women views them as less than equal or worse....then sooner or later it shows in behavior towards them.

Prosecute commanders that overlook or dismiss charges without grounds to do so. We wouldn't put up with crap like that from our local authorities and we should never expect it from people of authority in the military.

Let's not forget that these smug A^^ low life's ( pictured above) serve at the convenience of the Commander in Chief. Give them 90 days to report back with real signs of progress of fire them and replace them with Officers that can. I worked for Admiral H.G. Rickover for a number of years, and he took positive action, when a problem arose. These people look like they need a drink and a golf club to study the problem. I

Sen Saxby Chambliss is woefully overlooked in this story. Let me help with that.

“The other thing we have to remember as we think about making changes to the UCMJ, in this respect -- the young folks that are coming into each of your services are anywhere from 17 to 22 or 23. Gee whiz, the hormone level created by nature sets in place the possibility for these types of things to occur.”

Rapes have always happened in the military, just as they have in the general public. We need to ask ourselves, what about the military has changed these last 5-10 years to make this so much worse? The answer, I believe is the high op-tempo and frequent long deployments.

We need to consider shortening deployments and hardship tours, I suspect this is a bigger problem in the Army (which usually does 12-14 month deployments) than in the Marine Corps (which does 6 month deployments.)

—Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Georgia) sought today to explain his controversial remarks about sexual assaults in the military, telling reporters that his comments were the result of “declining levels of brain function created by nature.”“There are old men sitting in the United States Senate who are seventy or seventy-five or eighty,” he said. “Gee whiz, the declining levels of brain function created by nature sets in place the possibility for these types of things to occur.”

@Concerned_Cit Yes of course, Gays have been allowed for a year and they have spent that time joining up and raping the poor straights who were only trying to serve there country honorably. Please LORD protect us from the raping GAYS.

I think John McCain should avoid public service until this financial crisis is over. He's doing more to cause our fiscal crisis than woman are doing to cause the rape crisis. You know, I used to like McCain. I saw him as a true hero of this nation. Now, I just see a sell out. A man who cares more about himself and his political and fiscal future than he does anything else. He is the poster child for everything that is wrong in politics.

Separate the sexes! Some people, men and women act no better than ruting animals. If they can't control their basic urges, they will not make good soldiers, they need to concentrate on their job! If they can't do that, discharge them! Soon!